On fifteenth she went out to buy a new aquarium pump, because both old ones have croaked and the new submersible one is too strong, it's designed for a fountain. While she was out, majstor Mile called, he's got a buyer for our old house. I said „forty thousand, on the table, no triper“, so we agree that he'll pass the word and report back. Of course the price is about twice the expected amount, just in case anyone has money to burn and no time to waste.
She found a pump which pumps the air in. But it doesn't have a hose, so we fit the one from the submersible. It's all too short, though, so we glued it with a stronger tape on the right wall. Starts, goes, fishes happy.
Talked with Lena in the afternoon, saw Tanja becoming nicely rounded. Agreed to visit them on sunday, and they'd come here next weekend, for a larger lunch.
Two days ago V.G. called, about the mathematicians' meeting, delayed to 24th of october now, and unfortunately in the Army home again, so I jumped into my postman role, cross-refreshed the list with the mailing list, and sent out the email. I.G. mailed back immediately, with phone and address of V.J. (she's in Toronto). She's obviously the only one who remained a programmer to the end (used to work at Iskra Delta), the way she reacts promptly and takes care of data completeness. Sent them both (V.J. also emailed back within the hour) a link to Byo, may they read some.
In the evening I just felt like drinking, two evenings ago I remembered how good was the last year's apricot, better than the one of 2019, so we also talked about what to do with the old house. It sums up as not worth fixing, it's now hundred years old (grandfather bought it in 1929 and who knows when it was built), just tear it down and build two apartments, one for us and one to rent or sell. That should be feasible within a ten or twenty thousand euros, so just to keep the money busy and us from being bored, some dynamics. And it's a matter of guessing whether Lena and Milan would want to always live in thet apartment, with scarce parking space and Api needs to go out every day. This back corner between the railway and šećerana is a real oasis now. Lots of points of interest nearby - park, swimming pool, busodrom, Roda, Lidl, carwash, chinese restaurant, bunch of shops across the railroad, and yet it's beyond the congested area, there's barely fifty houses (there's seventy, if we count the sidestreets all the way to the railway and pool). Okay, we'll see what this candidate customer will say, and what they two will say. Of course, this time we don't mean to take tools in our hands, it would all be done by majstors.
For the next frendz parti I talked her into making that pizza of hers, square, over the whole plek. Nobody saw one like that, it's a miracle, and nobody puts such a rich topping on. And then she changed her mind, because Dragana complained of losing a bit of a filling from her teeth at the last sitting, and the edges of this pizza require strong front teeth, the crunch is a special pleasure when you have them, so then she made one just for us, which we ate on 15th and 16th, filled ourselves to the gills. For the party she rememebered the mimosa salad, which I couldn't possibly recall. How not, remember we ate that in Vršac when we visited with Go and hers... Um... let me look it up, must be somewhere on the photos. And barely managed to find it, because fes just didn't want to bring any of those up, and there's no trace of it here in Byo. Found it somehow, it was on 08-I-2017., which I didn't write yet, did now. And the recipe for the salad she found only in russian. She's seen enough of russian videos already to achieve a sufficient understanding of what they say, and the video helps as well, so that'll be it, plus some pancake musaka, plus pancakes with pekmez, most likely apricots, though I root for blackberries. Of which, though, we had only three jars, one already former.
On sixteenth Borče called, about the mathematicians' meeting, says the same gang as last time will go, plus Staša's wife and Momir, exactly seven for the van. Well, it takes eight, I said, so if you grab one more, can do. Then I remembered he forgot Duca, so I called her. She was quite verbose, said she didn't feel like coming, she knows almost nobody but the local team with whom she shared rides when attending the classes. What, you attended classes? I don't remember ever seeing you there in the building. Well how could you, you studied in Belgrade. Who, me? I was a Novi student... who'd ever say we attended the same studies at the same time...
As late as sunday afternoon I called Z.H. too (he'd come but he's in Vrnjačka Banja, refereeing a chess tournament for the whole week), and I.Z. (as we said last year that I will, and she promised to come, then we'll talk).
I started using up the emails lookup table that I put together. Now I have something searchable by sender, recipient, date, title, so finally dug out my correspondence with NPR on Tesla vs Marconi (12-XII-2006.), with Cecil on lung cancer and smoking (06-VIII-2014.) and a few more things. Much easier and faster than having the TandrTica (thunderbird) search through the gigabytes). As Al Doman said, „every application wants to be a database when it grows up“.
Our frajer croaked, so when we finished with the aquarium I remembered to check it. Took off its lid, took out my unimer (our generic name for multimeter), measured resistance on the heater... 0,24Ω but didn't quite look whether that was in megaohms, didn't dive deeper. Turned it on and measured the voltage at the heater's terminals, 229V... yet it's cold. And it's covered by warranty, and it's somewhat above the bar. The bar is around 3000 dinars, up to that amount we don't give much of a fuck if it gets fried, don't care about warranty and whatnot, if it croaked it croaked, discard it and then think it over, did we need the thing in a first place. If we do, go out and buy something serious. This time she preserved the box, receipt and warranty, found the phone of the repair shop in Subotica (which we drove by a month ago), called and listened to a mrz file where they said they take complaints online only, through their website which I failed to recognize even though I listened to it three times. But she somehow did, so I navigated there, clicked to the link with the claim form, and got a mailto: with a pre-filled text of an email to send, with slots for various data... well, almost looks like a form. It also said to attach a „claims form“, wtf is that, aaah yeah, to take a shot of the warranty and receipt, okay, did as they said, and for the description of the malfunction (not mentioning the opening and measurement) I put
Peason for clompaint: heater croaked. Thermostat clicks when it should, timer works, the fan is spinning, it just stopped heating.
Remark: attaч with this email message a picture of the malfunction and the complaint form
just to counter their formal style. And the ch I retyped with a ч (they had a c instead of č), and if they ever notice it, they noticed.
They emailed back the next day, saying to pack it with the paperwork and some rapid courier will pick it. Okaaaay, let's see that. Then went to Klincaid to pick the quince. Well, 'kako smo se nadali, dobro smo se udali' ([considering] what we hoped, we [still] married well). Two trees failed to bear any fruit, and the average fruit size was less than forelast year, and still the remaining five and a half trees (there's a pear grafted on quince root, quince grew a branch below the graft, now it bears both pears and quince) we picked 50 kg altogether. There's our entertainment in a few days.
In the evening we both felt like drinking, so after two and a half shots I went out to refill (this time the 22.2 tutifruti), but went to sleep as early as two. When I got up it was 12:30... I remember I dreamt of some guy coming to bother and strangle me with some propositions he had, and then he like went to pee and didn't return, and then I looked around and saw my sound equipment was gone, looked at the empty place on the floor by the wall some three or four times, nothing there. And in the dream I said to myself, hey you horse you, you don't have any sound equipment, just the two tin boxes around the monitors, you'll see when you wake up, just check, you'll see (which I put as a signature on burundi in the morning, I keep changing those at least monthly), and then repeated that scene at least four times. And I turned out to be right, when I woke. The story meandered away, when retold on oldwave, as usual, into walking on cables after the fire, and how I managed to never stumble over them despite still learning to walk in flipflops, after so many years in clogs, which fell apart just weeks before that and can't find where to buy new ones. There our half Slovenian guy jumped in and posted a link to Kopitarna. Well fuckit, last year I got to their website and found none of that in their catalog (which Škrba explained with my not using the Gugao) and look at it now, they have exactly the model I had. Ordered right away, waiting now. And the guy says he'll visist Slovenia in november, they have tha maggi spice, he'll bring some, no problem.
Whence the sound equipment in my head? Well, the oldwave had another verbose week, on the hiphilistics, because the third remaster of the Dark side of the Moon was out, so various exotics were mentioned, preamps with vacuum tubes peeking out of the box and doing a light show, and 300€ speaker cables, and „acquiring the equipment is no problem, give me good ears“. And there Škrba posted an autopatch of the new house's interior, pointing the empty spots and „that's where the speakers will be“.
The courier picked the frajer on monday, having missed me on friday, my phone dudded out again. Then we went to Roda to buy what we needed for the frendz parti - beer (black Kozel), two bottles of tikveš roze, champignons, and blue pills for me (the pharmacy is in the lobby). The did have Maggi's soup cubes, so the company is alive and kicking, it's the spice that's nowhere to be lost. We cleaned up the house, she made two dozen pancakes, then wrapped them like sarma, filled half with chicken filet chopped small as if for stir fry, half with ham and cheese, laid them into a plek and baked in the oven. I filled a bottle of 2023 apricot, made one tozna of cigarettes, because she cut her thumb while separating the frozen pogačice to bake them too, so she'd be too clumsy with a fresh wound and band aid on it, and could also hurt the wound more.
The two appeared on time, everything went smoothly. Probably the best pee [laughter] of the evening was when I told of Duca thinking I studied in Belgrade... Borče got into his educational trance only once, again stubbornly claiming that of the three geometries (elliptic, parabolic, hyperbolic) there's no evidence that any fits this universe of ours [... of our many universes?]. As late as on third try I managed to force him to hear that I had found Lobačevski's book, translated here in 1947, uncut, where he clearly claims to have measured the angles between Earth and two other celestial bodies, and measured the triangle's defect to an amount three orders of magnitude above his telescopes' precision, which means we live in a hyperbolic geometry (and along the way I explained to Dragana in a minute and a half the curvature of a surface, positive and negative, by outlining them with my palms and tracing lines by fingers), to which he reiterated his claim that there's no proof of that... in maths, this is physics. Well, physics is what you get in real universe, that's what we were looking for. We quit drinking even before one, yet stayed until after half two, simply didn't feel like breaking off the conversation.
We two then drank one more shot of apricot, doesn't matter from whose glasses, after we cleaned up everything, which we did swiftly, we're well practiced. And then slept nicely.
The next day I surprised myself with getting up as early as nine. Catnap after lunch (cube soup with firm farina dumplings, plus jučetina, q.v. in house dictionary), and then the new clogs arrived. The courier was, of course, a bit lost, nothing new, happens to every newbie.
In the afternoon talked with Lena first, saw Tanja learning how to use hands, and also trying to get up on all fours, though still not all of them at the same time. And then, just before bedtime, Nina called, haven't talked with her for about ten days now, she's readying the kids for halloween, shaping up the generic animal cardboard masks of which she bought a dozen, showed us the two skirts she bought at Brljington (Burlington...). Said they're gone to seeds, there's nothing to buy, don't even have the carpets anymore, she literally made two rounds over everything they had and found just those two skirts. And the cloth by the yard is gone crazy, at Džoana Fabrićka* it's now gone to 20$ per yard, and in Walmart there's no bolts, it's pre-cut pieces, so now you need to match not just the material, color and pattern, but also the length that you need. Guess the girl who knew how to convert thirds into decimals (v. 15-IV-2000.) is now the floor manager, too busy to pass the knowledge...
So this week we talked with all three daughters, and they all immediately agreed with the plan to demolish the old house and make two apartments there.
The mice multiplied, and the ecological mousetrap (which captures them but doesn't kill) caught ten already, tha last one on 22nd in the evening, when I put it behind the left monitor (nope, there were two more the next morning). She just takes it out into the yard, and the cats know the drill and are merry in advance. She shakes the mouse out of it, and it's usually Džimi who catches it first, nabs it a bit against the ground then lets go, may the kids play too.
On twentyfourth everything by the numbers, I took the van to pour some čorba - only 15 liters, for the little I run it that'll do. I even added some oil to the power steering, and yes now it maneuvers easier (though I had to peek into the manual to remember where to pour it), swept the cobwebs. We lunched the allchinese (aka stir fry), of course spiced up properly, two small bolivians inside, one sized as a larger pea, the other as a bean, and of course I ate with chopsticks... Even had the time to take a nap, which Borče interrupted, called me to check the schedule, and told me that we won't need to pick Momir, he'll come to him. Okay then that makes it easier - this time wait on your side of the street, I have fewer traffic lights in that direction (but it still ended as screwy, as they were painting the crosswalks by 25. maj). At scheduled time Staša came with his wife, stuffed them in the van (them into šaraglje*, first come), then picked the remaining four at the same places as last time (though the guy in the village came out two blocks closer, saved me a few minutes). Didn't really gun for speed, it was slightly congested and then being late wouldn't matter at all, so I didn't overtake anything faster than a tractor. No problem with parking either, Borče spotted a slot on the quay to the left, so I caught a chance to do about face, and we disembarked at 16:55, excellent. Though, we parked at some distance, smoked a whole one until we walked to the place, didn't matter.
The company was more diverse than usual, from age of 1953 to 1960 (though we of 1955 made for at least half). It felt somewhat stuffy inside in the beginning, it's the same place as 07-IX-2013.. Actually the same as four weeks ago, but then at least we could sit outside, it would be a tad chilly this time. Theer I noticed I forgot to bring the shooter, well never mind, there are twenty mobiles around, there'll be photos. I kept looking out to spot I.Z. if she comes, haven't seen her since filing for the february exams in 1979. While I had talked with the others in the meantime, with her I didn't ever since. Stood outside with M.D., he also smokes homemade, rolls his own, and lost the habit to smoke inside, so we exchanged hunters' tales, from both classrooms and various rooms with lots of computers. Asked him about the šećerana of Žabalj, the one of 03-VII-2015., said it's waiting for Gypsies to chop it and sell as scrap iron...
So it turned out that at the long table, where ours were, the remaining seats were all the way by the end of it, so we sat where I spotted a couple, and that turned out to be right across the two professors, who used to be asistents back then. Asked about Paja, and one of them said „he's exactly the reason I can't stay with you, have to go to the little stadium, where he holds his birthday party“.
Hare is gaining on me (he's coming from Bosnia to these encounters regularly, v. november 1975.), presently with six grandchildren and seventh on [its] way.
I.Z. didn't come at all. I called to check, left a message that we've already gathered, and that was it. Who knows whether i'll ever know what went on with her in these 45 years. I only know in which gimnazija she used to work - the one where we held our trial classes.
To all those who noticed I didn't bring the shooter, my standard reply was „forgot... the absentminded mathematician“, which passed coolly each time. During the trip back various anecdotes from exams were retold, and somehow we came to differential geometry, which we even then knew was an experimental course, the exams weren't even graded, and Paja had the hots for it, even intended to get his magisterial grade on the subject (which he later did), and everyone in the van confessed they never had any clue on what's going on in that matter, nothing ever came clear, the greatest mystery of it being how did we ever pass that exam (that last includes me as well), only I said that the thing felt cool to me, mad party in the head, and it helped that I found, in the library, a beginners' crash course, in slovenian language though, which made many things clear, and the whole matter helped me a lot later when I was pasting wallpaper on the bent old pressed-clay walls (v. july 1979.. There was a lull in the discussion then, and I said a bit more on the subject, until someone said „you seem to be the craziest here“.
When Staša and missus disembarked, she remembered that it it's polite to offer some compensation for the ride, which I, of course, refused with „while we studied I hitched a hundred cars, the universe treated me, so now I return the favor when I can“. To which she remembered seeing me many times from the bus, her village is on the zrenjanin road, „you used to wear that šinjel... with fur?“. That's some oddball thing to remember, but yup so it was. „You indeed were always... something special“.
Later I finished the quarter coffee which waited for me, on top of the domestic one I had before the ride back, sat until half two (she hit the hay an hour ahead), and sleep wouldn't [come] to the eyes. Same story again, at first I almost faint of sleepiness, and after half an hour tops, screw, I wake up. Various images keep coming in front of my eyes, but I'm still seeing myself watching them, not asleep. Got up around four, had a smoke, didn't hear any mice, guess that's over. And then finally slept, could be around half five. She left me so, probably not hungry yet, was in the works, took out the cutting patterns from the Miss B (the youth edition of Burda, which I bought then in Hungary), so I got up at 13:30. New world record of our street.
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* šaraglje are the grid holding the rear of the horse/ox cart, and hence the last row of seats in a bus or movie [theatre].
** Joanne's Fabrics, where we read the -ics in hungarian, as -itch, and then it's a surname
16-X-2024 - 19-X-2025